Received from NetGalley for review.
‘It was embarrassing, but not shameful.
The shame has come from what other people have said.’
I knew Blood Moon would be an important book for its subject alone – periods, sex, shaming, social media, online bullying – but I didn’t expect to enjoy it quite so much, especially as its written in verse which isn’t something I’m massively keen on for longer texts. The message of this book is so vital, period stigma needs to end, and the only way that will happen is through education. Ignorance leads to so many problems and this story is no different. As one of the characters says: ‘periods are normal. You’re the weird thing.’
The way Lucy Cuthew has approached and tackled this subject is brilliant – protagonist Frankie gets her period during her first sexual experience, and although surprised, she and Ben, the boy she’s with, aren’t that bothered. Its only blood, periods happen, life goes on. Unfortunately, word gets out, a meme gets made, social media explodes, quickly becoming a truly dark and scary place for Frankie. Everything snowballs and Frankie finds herself being shamed and abused online, until her safety becomes threatened. It makes me sad that something like this could happen, that things like this do happen all the time for a million reasons, and worst of all, that some people think this is normal? I could go on and on but there are people with much more influence than me doing that already and making a difference.
Cuthew has managed to handle all of this sensitively, to show what Frankie went through and how she ultimately overcame it – the shaming, the trolling, and how utterly wrong it is, is handled so well, with an overriding message of friendship and hope and overcoming. Hopefully this book will have a wide reach, for teenagers who may be worried about their periods in some way, for those without periods who need educating on the realities of it, on the normalities of it. After all…
‘It’s only blood.’
Read: June 19th-21st 2020
4/5 stars
Magic, Ink, and Stardust 